Book clubs in detention facilities – from juvenile centers to jails and prisons – offer unique opportunities to help people who are incarcerated develop critical thinking skills, expand their imaginations and journey beyond the walls through books. Books can inspire interesting conversations, open minds, and encourage learning and a love of reading.
Whether you’re passionate about books, interested in community service or simply want to make a difference, starting a book club behind walls is within your reach. We’ve gathered valuable insights and practical advice from leaders of successful incarcerated reading groups across the U.S., Canada and Britain. These include nonprofits, librarians, volunteers and community organizers. Their experiences show that anyone with dedication and a love of reading can create these meaningful spaces for literary connection.
You may want to begin by checking out Prison Reading Groups, a British organization that runs about 85 reading groups in more than 60 prisons throughout England and Wales as of 2023. On its website, the organization provides step-by-step instructions on how to start a reading group. The advice ranges from creating the group and recruiting members to how to conduct the first meeting, including encouraging each member to talk about the last thing they read.
The organization’s website also includes a booklist of both British and American books. Another feature, Book Talk, highlights two books every month, each with a synopsis and discussion questions.
Another good source to check out, especially for those who would like to start a club in a juvenile facility, is the American Library Association’s Great Stories Club, a library outreach program for underserved youth. Since it started the program in 2006, the ALA has given grants to libraries to carry out various themes. Past themes are highlighted on the association’s website. And each one includes a booklist and discussion questions for the books.
Librarians share their book club experiences
We gathered insights from numerous librarians who’ve launched inside book clubs nationwide – from prisons and jails to youth centers. What they’ve accomplished will give you an idea of what these clubs look like, how they’re organized, the challenges the librarians faced in putting them together and advice for others who may want to do a similar program in a local jail or prison in their own area.
Patricia Ball, a branch manager at the Cobb County Public Library System in suburban Atlanta, Ga., facilitates a book club at the Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice facility in Marietta, Ga. She works with another librarian volunteer. Two people are necessary, since the boys and girls need to be in separate rooms. The club, which consists of 10 to 12 teens chosen by the facility’s lead teacher, meets once a month.
The DJJ club is supported by a $1,000 grant from the ALA’s Great Stories Club, which covered two of the program’s themes. And Ball has chosen the books from the Great Stories Program Guide. The grant funding is finished, and the library system now supports the club. In addition to the books, the librarians offer snacks, and bookmarks and stickers, and have sponsored an author visit.
The experience has been a rewarding one for Ball. “We really see change in the teens that have been coming. It is wonderful to come in and walk thru, and now the teens are begging to come to the book discussion,” she says. For others who might want to start their own programs, she recommends not reinventing the wheel but finding someone who has been doing the work for a while and follow their advice.
Jennifer Harmonson, the adult services librarian at the Sacramento (Calif.) Public Library, began book discussion groups at the Sacramento County Jail, located just two blocks up the street from the library, in late 2015.
Currently, one group meets monthly in a men’s unit. About 12 people have signed up to participate. Harmon organized a series of readings of books made into movies, but may change the standard structure of everyone reading the same book every month in the future. The books were donated to the jail by the Sacramento Public Library. The participants are also given miscellaneous paperbacks to keep, taken from items donated to the library.
“Starting a book group is a great way to get people engaged in literacy and to plant the seed of using the library as a resource when they return to the community,” Harmonson says.
Prison book club changes teens’ lives
Kelsey Nordstrom-Sanchez is a librarian at California State University Monterey Bay. After calling the Monterey County Juvenile Hall and discovering it had no librarian, she decided to create the Reading Together to Reduce Recidivism monthly book club. It now includes 16 young men, ranging in age from 15 to 20 years old.
For a while she chose graphic novels to accommodate some members who were struggling to read but has moved on to romances – a popular genre – and books about formerly incarcerated gang members who have turned their lives around. Members also write journals and paint.
“Over the last two years, I’ve seen a remarkable transformation in the book club members.”
Kelsey Nordstrom-Sanchez
Nordstrom-Sanchez feels that the book club has had a remarkable impact on the teens’ lives. “I’ve witnessed firsthand how reading has changed their lives. When we first started the book club, I had to gain the trust of the youth,” she says. “They were so used to adults who walked out on them or disappeared from their lives. It wasn’t easy, but we now have a safe space to share, listen, and learn from each other.”
“Over the last two years, I’ve seen a remarkable transformation in the book club members. They are eager to read and devour what I bring in to share with them. They have become endlessly curious about the world around them. A world that they didn’t often feel a part of. As I am an academic librarian at a local public university, I speak to the youth about college and furthering their education. Many of the students now have a desire to get a college degree and even a master’s degree! Book club has been a source of hope and rehabilitation for the youth.”
Librarian creates virtual book club with outsiders
Christy Coulter, a librarian at the Kewanee Life Skills Re-entry Center in Kewanee, Ill., oversees the book club at her facility, which was originally started by two men who were incarcerated there and turned over to two others after they left. The group meets once a week and also meets virtually once a month with another book club at a local library. They all read the same new book every month, as well as a book every other month with the outside book club.
The books are donated by two nonprofits – Freedom Reads and the Correctional Library Support Program. The CLSP supports correctional librarians at Illinois facilities. It also hosted classical music concerts and authors visits at Coulter’s facility. Freedom Reads recently sponsored a virtual event with the editor of the book The Sentences That Create Us.
According to Coulter, the easiest way to start a book club “was having one of my library users really wanting to start one. And then he rounded up people he knew who would really enjoy the book club.”
And she feels that the virtual book club with the outsiders has been a great success. “When we started joining with the outside group, I was amazed at some of the interactions between all of us. I see joy in how people are joining in the discussion, and that is how I know this is a good thing,” she says.
Short reads prison book club takes a different approach
One club launched by a prison librarian, who prefers to remain anonymous, is operated by an outside volunteer and focuses on short reads. The six to eight members are given an eight- to 10-page handout each week and then gather for an hour to discuss what they read. The material alternates between fiction and nonfiction and may be an excerpt from a book, a printed-out podcast or a short story. She said that they had tried more traditional book clubs in the past, but those didn’t work out for several reasons. They couldn’t procure enough copies of the book, people were reading at different levels, and there was too much turnover in attendance.
Stephanie Knopp, the head of information services at the Salina Public Library in Salina, Ks., runs two monthly groups for the men and women incarcerated in the local jail. Jail officials choose the participants, and they meet for an hour once a month. Although Knopp usually decides on the books based on discussions she’d had with the group, she occasionally provides a short list for them to choose from. The books are provided by the library from withdrawn book sets or through purchases, mostly on eBay.
Advice she offers to those thinking about starting a book group:
Provide discussion questions in advance when handing out the books.
Supplement with video content so that those who haven’t read the book can still participate. It also grabs their attention when introducing a book. (Local jail population turns over quickly so we often don’t have all of the same attendees from month to month.)
Bring along a magazine article or short story on the same theme or topic to read together during the group to accommodate those who didn’t read the book.
Be flexible.
Gabriel Loiederman, a librarian at San Quentin Rehabilitation Center in California, runs a monthly book club with 10 members, who inquire after seeing an advertisement posted for the club. Participants are offered three book choices with synopses. The books alternate between fiction and nonfiction and are usually best sellers that received some sort of recognition, such as the Booker Prize, Hugo Award or Oprah’s Book Club.
As for advice, he says, “Incarcerated persons tend to be interested in new trends in natural or social sciences so it is worth looking at options for discussion that fall into related subjects. Books about incarceration or criminal justice may not be preferred because participants are often looking for an escape from that world (mentally if not literally). It is worth connecting with other reading-oriented programs at the institution to potentially enlist co-facilitators. This has been invaluable for our book club.”
“I have sometimes selected books that I’ve enjoyed because it is easier for me to facilitate discussions. When conducting discussions, it is helpful to structure meetings around open-ended questions.”
Prisoners benefit from 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
Suvi Manner, a librarian at the Kinross Correctional Facility (KCF) in Kincheloe, Mich., operates two book clubs, which are so popular that they have a waitlist. The regular book club has hour-long meetings to discuss books she chooses from popular book club selections that already have established book discussion questions.
She is now in the third group of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People book club, based on the best-selling book by Steven Covey. Attendees in the eight-week program write a personal mission statement. They’re also expected to work on applying the book’s principles to their daily lives, thus creating a safer environment for all. There are between 10 and 15 members of the group, and the facilitators are from Manner’s prison writing club.
For those considering starting a prison book club, Manner recommends, “Always with any program regardless of where it is held, it is especially important to lay down the ground rules for expectations of behavior and what active participation is expected and what participation looks like. It is good to remind participants that there will be no “cross talk” or arguing and that various opinions are respected as library programs provide a safe encouraging space for everyone. This also means that certain topics or issues will not be discussed.
Nonprofit operates book clubs across Canada
Book Clubs for Inmates, a Canadian nonprofit, operates more than 40 book clubs in minimum, medium and maximum security federal penitentiaries across Canada. Volunteers lead English and French clubs, each with about 10 to 18 members who meet monthly. The more than 120 volunteers are recruited through word of mouth or social media channels.
Jeannie Kwan-Brydges, the organization’s program coordinator, explains how they establish book clubs in the various penitentiaries. “Typically, staff from federal penitentiaries reach out to us to start book clubs, often driven by the inmates’ requests. We have established connections with the national office (of Correctional Service Canada) in Ottawa, which helps guide us to the right contacts for our program, such as the librarian, lead educator or social program officer. Once we are in touch with the appropriate person, we introduce our program, and they then seek approval from their senior management to move forward,” she says.
Book Clubs for Inmates partners with First Book Canada, which supplies books to them at a fraction of the retail cost. Authors often visit the clubs, thanks to the connections of the organization’s executive director, who had a long career in the Canadian publishing industry.
As for advice to others, “One key piece of advice is to secure support from both the institution’s staff and management and ensure genuine interest from inmates in participating. While recruiting volunteers may be challenging, it is certainly not impossible,” she says.
Who to contact within the system
Here are the key people to contact about starting a book club in detention facilities (in order of most helpful first):
Volunteer coordinator – typically your first and best contact for outside programs.
Education/programming director – oversees learning activities and can champion your program.
Facility librarian – invaluable resource for book-related programs.
Programs officer/manager – coordinates activities and scheduling
Mental health services director – can support programming’s therapeutic benefits.
Deputy warden/assistant superintendent – especially those overseeing programs.
Unit managers – can help with logistics and participant recruitment.
Chaplain – experienced with coordinating volunteer programs.
Community engagement officer – helps connect outside programs with the facility.
Editor’s note: The American Library Association sponsors an interest group known as Library Services for the Justice Involved. The group is for librarians and others who serve people incarcerated in various correctional settings or those who are formerly incarcerated. It has a listserv, which anyone can join, and sponsors a yearly gathering held the day before the annual ALA convention.
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